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Poster: Vermoontains Date: Jul 20, 2016 11:57am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Days Between

Reade, I thought I read that you liked Days Between. I am not sure. I know a lot of people do not care for it.]
I think it is a great song and Bob and all did a nice job at this show. On the video it starts about 4:04 hours. To me the song is a paean to the deadheads whatever that may mean. I like the structure and the four seasons in the four stanzas. It is quite reflective, for good or ill.

Here is an article and the lyrics.

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/days.html

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Poster: Reade Date: Jul 20, 2016 6:49pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Indeed- I've droned on about this before, V. I'll have to take this recent performance for a spin. I'd like to think the lack of any great live renditions (with Jerry still on board) of 'Days Between' may account for those who don't care for it. More power to them in any event, but 'DB' is no 'So Many Roads' or 'Standing on the Moon.' To my ears it's a late-era Hunter-Garcia masterpiece, up there with anything they'd ever done. The lyrics always remind me of Hunter's eulogy, where he suggested Jerry was a stern editor, one who demanded phrases that hit home 'in a thousand different ways.' I was unaware of the four seasons thing! Duh. And he takes them one by one in reverse order- very Hunter- and ends with Fall, in the Autumn of his brilliant collaboration with Jerry. The soul of a poet, the heart of a friend. Just lovely.
This post was modified by Reade on 2016-07-21 01:49:21

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Poster: Vermoontains Date: Jul 20, 2016 7:36pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Nicely stated.
Almost every last word in a verse could be repeated for effect but only the last ones are. So many beautiful phrases. You hear them once and know them forever.
A part of folks not liking it is it sounds dramatic or important and people don't want to be told things. And there is not much guitar for some, only at the end.

I saw Weir and Mayer on a Bravo show and out of the blue the guy asks Bob what Jerry song means the most to him now and he says this one. I think his bond with Jerry is felt still strong. And it shows. Bob did great on this.
( The best part of that show was Mayer talking about going to gay bars with the host in SF, Cohen maybe. I thought I would cringe but Mayer was quite funny.)

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Poster: Reade Date: Jul 20, 2016 9:02pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Weir was certainly feeling it, I'll say that.
I think with that tempo, and lack of guitar, just clicking through the four stanzas, they need to be careful not to turn it into a dirge. It's not supposed to be that. Although I can see Weir taking it there, consciously or otherwise, as I believe (along the lines you suggest of the strong bond) he's never gotten over Jerry's passing.

I had hopes Mayer's outro line would turn into something it didn't. Instead, for me, it just kind of sat there, a new age, spacey end punctuation.

Didn't Jerry put some guitar in the middle? It's been awhile since I've listened- always focused more on the lyrics, as many of the '93-'95 performances were of course so lacking.

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Poster: Vermoontains Date: Jul 21, 2016 12:23pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Bob put a lot of effort into it. On a lot of songs now I have noticed that his singing is dramatic and he sings looking up like the mic is too high. I heard Jerry and he just speaks the words, plaintive, and they are more effective and melancholy, ie. code for crying. I like Bob's version but it doesn't move you to tears.
In the beginning I think there was only a jam after the last verse, then late 94 a jam after the third verse too.
Here is one to add to coldrain's which were very good

https://archive.org/details/gd94-12-19.sbd.vernon.20712.sbeok.shnf

On the eulogy and Bob I saw this from bluedevil and it had the Hunter letter from a year after

https://archive.org/post/318384/jerry-eulogy-request

on Bob "In retrospect, I think Weir was hardest hit of the old crowd by your death. I take these things in my stride, though I admit to a rough patch here and there. But Bob took it right on the chin. Shock was written all over his face for a long time, for any with eyes to see."
and on the song "Just folk music and tremendous dreams. Yeah, we dreamed our way here. I trust it. So did you. Not so long ago we wrote a song about all that, and you sang it like a prayer. The Days Between. Last song we ever wrote."

like a prayer


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Poster: Reade Date: Jul 21, 2016 10:30pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

I noticed the Bob looking skyward thing, but wasn't aware it was a trend- haven't watched a lot of DeadCo stuff. Still searching, still asking 'Why?,' looks like. A prayer vs. a dirge, a wonderful distinction. An offering as opposed to a lament. Two personalities, two sets of life experiences, two approaches given a considerable set of Hunter lyrics. I'm not sure I get melancholy from Jerry's readings as much as a bittersweet rumination of things experienced and accomplished, perhaps beyond wildest dreams, but tempered by the wisdom that comes with age. Some world weariness going on for sure, but there's things cherished about the past, with some optimism for the future. 'A hopeful candle lingers......'
This post was modified by Reade on 2016-07-22 05:30:46

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Poster: Vermoontains Date: Jul 22, 2016 11:15am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Well spoken thoughts. I think you got exactly what the song is. I used to think it was about the "sacred and profane" and about them and the fans, but now I am not sure.
The Hunter writings are plain and true.
The music seems driven by Vince or the keyboards and that lends to the dirge sound.
I heard this, from the rehearsals, and I love the sound of Garcia's voice, lilting. He basically tells Vince to play the music on it. Maybe that is why no big guitar until the end.

https://archive.org/details/gd93-02-10.rehearsal.Samaritano.17435.sbeok.shnf

here is a video that is pretty good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcVWRuv1o6M


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Poster: Reade Date: Jul 22, 2016 11:44am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Thanks to you V, and ColdRain for reminding me there's some good enough versions of this tune '93 - '95.

And of course the rehearsal version has always been sort of the go-to reading, for me at least. Feb. of '93 would have had them off the road for quite awhile generally speaking, presumably rested and relaxed (all things being relative), and working with strong material.
He was back playing with Grisman, busting out chestnuts like 'Whiskey in the Jar,' making the rounds of all his old girlfriends, and to me just in general consciously, joyously and very fondly hooking up his glorious past with his present.
Enter 'Days Between.'

The lyrics imo have always represented a deeply personal exchange, basically, between Jerry and Hunter. And as I was reminded from your link to Hunter's letter one year out from ground zero, the sentiments expressed grew out of that post-beatnik, pre-hippie world of the early sixties they shared. ('All there was was folk music and our dreams,' whew. That kinda stopped me in my tracks for a minute that day.)
Importantly to me, this span for all intents and purposes predates Jerry's relationships with the other band members. So to say the least, again, just a deeply Hunter-Jerry thing. So much so that I suggested around these parts a few years back that Weir and Lesh would be well-advised to just leave the fucker alone. Sacred shit. But what do I know?

The tune clearly speaks to Weir (I had no idea he cites it as his favorite Jerry number- that fits perfectly!) and he sings it from the one standpoint he has- his. And because of that particular view, being Jerry's wing-man for thirty years, it's a vehicle for him to express his tremendous loss. (More power to him there- perhaps a better strategy than painkillers and scotch.)

The dirge-like quality I was thinking applied mostly to Weir's orientation to the tune as discussed, and what sounded like overly sparse instrumental support from DeadCo. But what this back and forth has made me aware of is Jerry himself probably sank into dirge-land on some of those nights '93 - '95 when, strictly speaking, he probably shouldn't have been on a stage at all.
Such is the power of the material I guess! To push it out as a prayer and not a lament, you've got to be properly synched up with it from the get-go.

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Poster: Vermoontains Date: Jul 22, 2016 5:48pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

Good stuff. Here is some happy stuff Hunter and Garcia 1980 Jerry smiling so happy at near 3 minutes ...makes me happy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgo65fuZec8
This post was modified by Vermoontains on 2016-07-23 00:48:40

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Poster: ColdRain108 Date: Jul 21, 2016 10:15am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: Days Between

I love that song, makes me cry every time I listen to it. It was my wife's favorite song. Hits so many points.

A nice one from my last show, Jerry's vocals are so strong. Fare Thee well indeed!

https://archive.org/details/gd1995-05-29.fob.schoeps.unknown.larson.34270.flac16

Here is one of the best of '93

https://archive.org/details/gd1993-08-22.mtx.hansokolow.98235.flac16

The last truly outrageous, can't believe my senses thing I saw the GD do was So Many Roads in December of '93. Jerry stood 20 feet tall on that stage and just crushed the audience. Not a dry eye in the house. My jaw was on the floor - and no chemical enhancement was at play.